Mars Global SurveyorMars Orbiter Camera

White Rock

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1281, 14 November 2005

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a portion of the famous "White Rock" feature in Pollack Crater in the Sinus Sabaeus region of Mars. The light-toned rock is not really white, but its light tone caught the eye of Mars geologists as far back as 1972, when it was first spotted in images acquired by Mariner 9. The light-toned materials are probably the remains of a suite of layered sediments that once spread completely across the interior of Pollack Crater. Dark materials in this image include sand dunes and large ripples.

Malin Space Science Systems and the California Institute of Technology
built the MOC using spare hardware from the Mars Observer mission.
MSSS operates the camera from its facilities in San Diego, California.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Mars Surveyor Operations Project
operates the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft with its industrial
partner, Lockheed Martin Astronautics, from facilities in Pasadena,
California and Denver, Colorado.